Medication requires care

Be very careful with the medicines that you are taking, as the side effects can be worse than the reason you are taking the medicine. You have heard this many times. I never paid much attention, or as much attention as I should have, when a doctor has given me a prescription or stopped a prescription.

I always trusted what the doctor was doing but they really aren’t the experts when it comes to the pills you are. Why do I say that? Because I take a lot of medicine — thirty pills a day — and I just went through hell when a doctor of mine (I have several doctors that I go to. That is another problem) stopped one of my medicines and all of a sudden I started hurting all over…all my muscles and joints. It was so bad that I could not work or do anything and almost needed crutches to get around! I kid you not, I was mighty miserable.

I thought that it was caused by my Crohn’s Disease because that has caused so many problems and puts me in the hospital a couple times a year. I ended up going to my rheumatology doctor and he put me back of the medicine my quarterback doctor had taken away. Well, in a couple days, the pains started going away and in a week, I was almost completely back to normal.

I was in pharmacy a couple days ago and I happened to mention the problem to the pharmacist. I asked him if he had ever heard of this happening to anyone else. He immediately said, “Yes.” I shouldn’t have relied on my doctor and instead gone to the pharmacist when the side effects started. The main reason that I am writing this article is to encourage you to use your pharmacist more than you have been in the past regarding how to take your medicine and what side effects mean, so you won’t go through the hell that I did. The is the expert when it comes to your medicine… not the doctor!

While I am on the subject of medicines, I also want to tell you to get rid of any medicines that you have that you are no longer taking and have expired dates on the bottle. This too can be a dangerous situation.

I know, you paid a lot of money for that medicine and you don’t want to just throw it away. But the medicine changes after a period of time, depending on the condition of the area where it is stored, and could actually hurt you if you used any of it. Do not throw this old medicine in the garbage, down the toilet, or down the drain because it will then get into the ground water and be a problem. Take advantage of frequent offers on television to take this medicine to special collection locations and then they will properly dispose of it for you. This special collection program is usually run by your local police department, as was a recent one announced to the public a couple days ago.

So, in conclusion, play it safe with your. Don’t use it when it is out of date, see your pharmacist immediately if you have any questions about how to take it or any side effects, and dispose of it properly and safely when it gets old and that means not flushing it down the toilet or throwing it in the garbage.